Grammar Rocks

POSTED BY: maugwai
UPDATED: Saturday, October 30, 2004 01:32
VIEWED: 19692
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RUXTON

Friday, October 29, 2004 1:18 AM

Grounded:

Happens.

SHINY

Friday, October 29, 2004 3:05 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by meleaux:
Also a local pronunciation of ASK- as AXE. "she axed me to go with her" It makes me literally cringe.

Count me in as a cringer. My cable company (Comcast) keeps running these ads where the family pronounces picture as PITCHER.

Jayne, your mouth is talkin. Might want to look into that.

GOJIRO

Friday, October 29, 2004 3:17 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Ruxton:
Gojiro,

Thanks for the regional clarification on Eye-ther vs. EE-ther.

BTW, three references tell me you are wrong about "Joss's" and I was right with "Joss' "

But I have some doubts. Can you name your reference? Mine are two "collegiate" dictionaries and a style manual. The problem seems to be with three "s's" in line.

.........Ruxton

Happy to oblige! My reference is the venerable and widely used Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), page 200, section 6.24 (to be precise).

It lists examples, one of which is "Ross's land" -- which is as close as you can get. There are exceptions to this rule, notably Greek names ("Euripides' plays") and religious figures ("Jesus' disciples" or "Moses' people"). While some have elevated Joss to godlike status, I doubt the populace at large would agree, and therefore the possessive form of his name should be spelled "Joss's".

Garner's A Dictionary of Modern American Usage also agrees with CMS. See page 509 of ADMAU.

That said, almost EVERYONE gets this wrong, so what makes the "rule"? I choose to go by the book, but others believe popular usage should dictate what's right. Personally, that's smacks of anarchy to me. But that's just me.

-------
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RUXTON

Friday, October 29, 2004 5:50 AM

gojiro,

Thanks much. The only example I could find was in the "U.S. Gov't Printing Office Style Manual," which had "hostess' " as the only word with two final s's. Yours is the only example I've seen with two at the end of someone's name.

Unfortunately, style books tend to follow common usage, and thereby screw up the formalities of language along the way, all to the detriment of organized society and, as you suggested, plunge mightily toward anarchy. I don't like 'em.

Sadly, I have no access to your noted references. I am truly at the corner of No and Where, and all things come here by truck, when I choose to buy. But I'll keep an eye out for ADMAU.

Kwaheri

OBSESSED

Friday, October 29, 2004 7:11 AM

1) Capitalization
2) Run-on sentences
3) "I axed him a question." (Not unless you were interrogating him with a hatchet, you didn't.)
4) I don't mind the occasional spelling mistake on difficult words, but some of the things I see misspelled are just frightening. Genious, seperate, differant, becouse, etc.
5) The misuse of the word "literally" just irritates the hell out of me. "Firefly was so good, I was literally blown away." If you write this, you should either way less than 1/2 a pound, play with explosives, have trigger-happy friends, or have watched firefly in a hurricane. Otherwise, you were not "literally" blown away. (Although maybe you should be.....)
6) OK, this last one is a little different. Does anybody have a definitive spelling for goram, gorram, gorramn, gorran, whatever the hell it is? I keep seeing different spellings, and there must be someone out there with scripts to look at. If anyone knows, please post (with good grammar.)

Book: I'd forgotten - you're moonlighting as a criminal mastermind now.
Simon: No, but I'm thinking about growing a big black mustache. I'm a traditionalist.

BARNEYT

Friday, October 29, 2004 7:37 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by obsessed:
...4) I don't mind the occasional spelling mistake on difficult words, but some of the things I see misspelled are just frightening. Genious, seperate, differant, becouse, etc.

I'm the same on spelling mistakes, although anyone who misspells 'separate' gets my sympathy because it's one of those words that I have never been able to spell correctly without stopping and carefully going over it in my mind...

Has anyone ever noticed that, if you're stuck with the spelling of a word, the more you look at it the more wrong it looks, even if you do have the correct spelling... It really doesn't help!

---
"I think the right place to start is to say, fair is fair. This is who we are. These are our numbers." Mr Willis of Ohio - The West Wing

OBSESSED

Friday, October 29, 2004 9:06 AM

OK, I forgot, one thing. Is there someone, who can guess, what it is, or, do I have to, spell it out?

Book: I'd forgotten - you're moonlighting as a criminal mastermind now.
Simon: No, but I'm thinking about growing a big black mustache. I'm a traditionalist.

GROUNDED

Friday, October 29, 2004 9:57 AM

Could it, have something, to do with, misuse of, a particular, item of, punctuation?

BARNEYT

Friday, October 29, 2004 10:39 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Grounded:
Could it, have something, to do with, misuse of, a particular, item of, punctuation?

Guily as charged on this one!

I've been on my best behaviour while writing posts to this thread, but I do have a tendency to write entire e-mails (and large tracts of essays until someone proof reads them for me!) without the end of a sentence in sight!

Although to be fair (to me), it's not so much that I misuse commas, just that I overuse them...

---
"I think the right place to start is to say, fair is fair. This is who we are. These are our numbers." Mr Willis of Ohio - The West Wing

MELEAUX

Friday, October 29, 2004 2:07 PM

Oh, I thought of another one. "impacted". To say I was impacted by the t.v. show FF. To be impacted means you were going at a great speed and were impacted into that brick wall. The t.v. show may have had an impact on you but you were not impacted by it. Teeth can be impacted, and I'm told bowels can be impacted....ew.

She understands, she doesn't comprehend

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